Day 20 - Tuesday April 7: Ingram, TX to Blanco, TX

Miles Today: 85. Total Miles: 1,535. Terrain: Gentle rolling hills

Temp: Cool. Time: 7 hrs 15 min

Gremlins struck again last night. We awoke to another flat rear tire. That makes 3 times that flats occurred during the night. However, Don was on the road by 9:15 headed for Blanco. Meanwhile, Penny went for a short run, which became more of a nature walk. In the space of 20 minutes she saw two turtles, two wild turkeys, three different sightings of bucks and does.....but no partridge in a pear tree!

The roads were narrow, winding, and undulating, but very beautiful, with lush green foliage. We passed countless ranches and horse farms, with elaborate stone and wrought iron gates and fences. On approaching the small town of Sisterdale, Penny spotted Sister Creek Winery, a charming, old building surrounded by vines.

Shortly afterwards, at our lunch break along side the road, a pickup truck stopped beside our car and the driver turned out to be a Young Life volunteer from the Ingram area. He had seen the signs on our car and wanted to know what we were doing. His name is John Flowers, and we had an enjoyable, if brief, conversation with him about Young Life.

Roadside Encounter with John Flowers from Ingram Young Life

We reached our destination of Blanco at about 4:30 and were welcomed by our host for the night, Steve Mackey, the Young Life Area Director. Yet again, we were given the run of the house, cooking dinner, doing laundry, etc, etc. Steve showed us the Club house, which is a converted sheep shearing barn. It even contains the original weighing scales from its previous life. The Club is well equipped with all sorts of game tables, video and music equipment, as well as a fully equipped weight room! By the way, you can see from Steve's photo below that he is into body building and competes in competitions.

Checking out the Club Room

The Various Shapes and Sizes of Young Life

The other resident in Steve's house is an abandoned pup found alongside the road and adopted by Steve. Her name is Piper, but we thought Hyper would be more appropriate! In this photo she is having a rest period on Penny's bag.

Tomorrow we proceed to Barstop, southeast of Austin.

Yours on the Road,
Don and Penny